{"id":24604,"date":"2025-08-26T15:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24604\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T15:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:57:12","slug":"irish-consumer-confidence-picks-up-after-trump-tariff-deal-survey-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24604\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish consumer confidence picks up after Trump tariff deal, survey finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish consumer confidence picked up slightly in August as the economic outlook was seen to have improved as a result of the Trump<\/a> administration\u2019s tariff<\/a> deal with the European Union<\/a> (EU). <\/p>\n

The Credit Union Consumer Sentiment Index rose to 61.1 in August from a reading of 59.1 for the previous month, but remained well below 72.1 recorded a year earlier. <\/p>\n

While the US-EU tariff deal reached in late July imposes a 15 per cent charge<\/a> on most goods being imported from the union, weighing on economic activity and employment, economists say that the accord reduces uncertainty. <\/p>\n

\u201cIrish consumers likely responded in a marginally positive fashion both because the tariff deal should reduce uncertainty, and because the proposed scale of tariffs, while material, falls a good deal short of widely feared worst-case scenarios,\u201d said economist Austin Hughes, author of the Irish consumer sentiment report. <\/p>\n

The latest report is based on 1,000 adults surveyed between August 6th and 17th. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the negative impact [of the deal] on the Irish economy may be material, it is likely to prove manageable,\u201d said Mr Hughes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreliminary official estimates suggest the tariff deal agreed between the US and the EU will shave about 1.5 percentage points off growth over five years, manageable in an Irish economy that might expect to grow a cumulative 10 to 15 per cent over a five-year time frame.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland has a golden economic opportunity. Don\u2019t blow itOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, living costs<\/a> continue to be \u201ca painful and persistent difficulty\u201d for many Irish households and weigh on wider sentiment, he said. <\/p>\n

The subindex reading for individuals\u2019 current personal financial situation dipped to 70.6 in August from 71.4 last month and 80.5 a year ago. \u201cRising grocery prices and back-to-school costs prompted a small further weakening in sentiment around household finances,\u201d said Mr Hughes. <\/p>\n

\"\"Why is Ireland not considered a truly rich country?<\/p>\n

A rise in food prices in recent months has been driven by outsized increases in the cost of high-profile staples such as butter and beef, which rose 19 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively, on the year in July, according to the latest Central Statistics Office<\/a> (CSO) data. Milk, coffee and chocolate prices surged by 12 per cent, almost 13 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively, over the same period. <\/p>\n

While the outlook for unemployment improved marginally on the month, it was down on the year. <\/p>\n

The general economic outlook subindex rose to 20.5 from 17.8 in July, but was down from 32.5 for August 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is encouraging that consumer sentiment has edged higher in August, the main message of the survey is that elevated living costs remain a key issue for many Irish households,\u201d said David Malone, chief executive of the Irish League of Credit Unions. \u201cConsumers continue to turn to their local credit union for guidance.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish consumer confidence picked up slightly in August as the economic outlook was seen to have improved as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,2190,20617,356,179,18,19,17,6221,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-24604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-credit-unions","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-trump-presidency","17":"tag-us-tariffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}